I am so lucky living in a city where I actually can be hiking in my neighbourhood.
My city
I am living in a small town called Bodo with just 50 000 inhabitants. Many of us, including me come from suburban districts and we have to move to a city for college or university.
Every Sundays my best friend and I are having a long walk. It can be up in the mountain or by the sea. Everything is so close. The opportunities are many. Our goal is to reach a minimum of 10 000 steps and that is not hard to get.
We are up in the mountain looking down at the town. The funny thing is when we are walking we nod or say hello to complete strangers, and sometimes many want to talk. I find that really amusing. Maybe that is strengthened because of the pandemic. But that is also a part of the north Norwegian spirit.
The sun is finally back approximately January 14thThis picture is taken earlier in January waiting for the sun to return
This time of the year you have to wear shoes with ice spikes on. To days walk was really icy, but we came down safely. It was windy and – 10 degrees Celsius, so we had to be dressed properly. Almost wool inside out.
I love these walks, because it give me so much energy. The anxiety ease of and I sleep better at nights. I am not depended on my friend, but the advantage is that we are pushing each other to reach our goal. But sometimes I have to to walk alone and then my companion is an audio book. It is not the same as the companion of a friend, but it makes the walk easier.
I am very sad to day. I woke up this morning full of plans for the day. After scrolling the newspapers on the Internet I discovered that Kelly Preston is diseased after a two years struggle against breast cancer. I met my own fear with anxiety and I could not sit still. All my plans were changed. Instead I have been trying to escape my cancer thoughts with a very long walk.
I took a walk for about 10 km with an audio book to disturb my thoughts. But it failed, of course. I dont even remember the content of the chapter I was listening to. While I was walking my mother rang. She had also become very nervous on my behalf, because she had read about Kelly Preston too. What did I do then? Well, I tried to comfort her with the facts that my lump is out and that the oncologist told me I had an early stage breast cancer and so on. My mother calmed down, but my anxiety raised to a peak I havent felt for a long time. No one was there to comfort me. After my conversation I walked even faster yet again trying to escape my cancer thoughts. I get the same feelings when people ask me how I am doing, and I say I am doing fine. It is just like they dont believe me. I just feel it. People forget that my breast cancer is not someone elses breast cancer. Each and everyone is treated differently.
The anxiety equalizer
Back home I found my writings, some notes I made after my meetings with the oncologists. These words are gold to me and my only comfort. But it takes a while to find this comfort and the calm to ease off the anxiety. During the day I know my writings will. Even though I did not know Kelly Preston, her death had a huge impact on my day. It feels like I am in family or related to anyone who struggles with the disease, or have died of it. In a way that comforts me too. We are many and more to come, unfortunately. We can comfort each other, while each of us comfort our family.
The society is going in the wrong direction. Each and everyone of us must work faster and more efficient. We are all running with blue flashing lights on our shoes like an emergency car. Having a good simultaneous capacity is in the long term not a good feature. I ended up with a overheated brain with lack of concentration and I started to forget things. The brain fog was extremely thick. My doctor and psychologist had to stop me. But should I feel any shame?Burnout- will I ever recover?
Why?
I have worked a lot. To much I must say when I think back. A peri operative nurse working with brain fog would be extremely dangerous. But I changed work when I felt something was wrong. You can feel it, but it is hard to explain what is wrong.
In the working life there is no room for diseases, and when the day comes and your body says «No», you feel you are being punished. When you are on sick leave long enough you have to beg for money. The politicians are still proclaiming that it should pay off to work. Yes, but at what cost? My body has really been paying off. Should I feel any shame?
A burnout with following fatigue, depression and anxiety is not a status disease like a heart attack. Even though it got such an impact on your life and family. It is «only» a psycho- somatic disease….. And when you first got that label it follows you through the health care. A psychologist told me once that depression is a symptom of a stressful brain. I have kept that in mind every time I have struggled.
Symptoms of burnout
Norway got a law. I guess in English it would be called working environment act. This law got many important paragraphs talking so nicely about including people with disadvantages. But I truly believe that if the pace in the working environment could slow down a bit, people with different diseases could work more. I also believe that there would be less people with burnout symptoms. https://wp.me/pb4jAC-pM
Can anyone make a good decision in a stressful environment? Maybe up to a point, but it would not last until you are 70. Of course it depends on the job and your profession. But I guess any job would stop you in the end
I have already answered this question. I don’t feel any shame, but the only thing I regret is not stopping myself in time. But how would I know? I was stopped and if I weren’t what would have become of me? The downhill was very steep and there was a brick wall in the end. No one is irreplaceable and no one would thank you the day you hit the wall. So please take care of your self and your family. Learn to say no, when you feel you have to take care of yourself and be honest about it.
Everybody knows someone with ADHD and got some kind of clues what it is. But what if your child in addition tourettes? School and homework are always a challenge. But with some effort from the parents and the school these kids may have an ok school day.
What is ADHD and Tourettes?
ADHD and Tourettes are neurobiological heritaged conditions. «Attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder is also categorized in some sub classifications. The child can have mostly attention deficit or mostly hyperactivity and noattention deficit. If your child got the combined type it got attention deficit and hyperactivity.These diagnoses has be changed during the years. A typical ADHD child is immature compares with other children of the same age. They often midunderstand social rules, ending up in a quarrel or a fight. Most of them are not a team mate, and would often not function in a team sport like football.
Tourettes syndrome is a diagnose where people, school and health service have very poor knowledge of. This diagnose is full of myth, stigma and it is rarely portrayed correctly on film and tv. There is nearly always an exaggeration.
Most of the children got moderate tics and will deal with them as they grow up. The tourettes got sudden, unwanted, repeatedly movements or vocal sounds. The tics can be eye winks, facial grimace, nose wrinling, head throwing, nodding, piping, whining, sniffing, stuttering, howling, shouting, cursing and so on. In addition they can have ADHD and OCD, which is obsessive compulsory disorder. Just the tourettes diagnose is rarely.
The tics can move from one bodypart to the other with reinforcement in the presence of anxiety, stress, boredom, looking forward to something, little sleep and medicin.
What about these children in school?
Some of these children with both or just one of these diagnosis resist changes. Settled routines are very important. Holidays can be a really challenging periode for the child and the parents.
First of all your childs school mates need to know about ADHD and especially the tourettes. The earlier they know about these conditions it could maybe prevent some bullying.
During a school day there can be a lot of different subjects. This may cause many problems like frustrations and anger. Rapidly and many changes during a school day can feed the anxiety and depression. ADHD and Tourettes energy are both intensive conditions. I wrote about this in my post « Metylphenidate, poor appitite in children» https://wp.me/pb4jAC-1Z. Both of the these conditions got attention-and consentration problems. There is a double up.
They struggle at school and many of them go through junior and senior high without any friends. It is important to include these children in the school yard. At least give them an opportunity to join the play. Many are just wandering around alone in the school yard.
Children with ADHD and Tourettes in school need a predictable day to reduce the anxiety and maybe the outrageous behavior. A day plan is a great idea. The teacher can make an appointment with the pupil, and write down on the scheme what exactly the pupil should work with. When the pupil stick to the appointment, he or she could be rewarded with a smiley marked down at the scheme. If the child for an example got 5 smileys during the day, the parents could reward him or her with an ice cream.It means that the main teacher and the parents have to work tighter than others.
Kids with adhd and tourettes syndrome need a lot of breaks. Let them go to a room where they can be alone and do their tics. It is not realistic to think that they can work intesively in 45 min. Since many of these children with ADHD and Tourettes don’t want to be at school, we have to find a solution they can live with. Let them do their homework at school and give them a proper leisure time.
These kids need an individual school training plan with focus on social skills and spesific subjects the child struggles with. Have focus on the most important subjects. During other subjects he or she can sit by their desk and draw. They will always pick up something from the lecture.
During school test these children could answer the test orally instead of in writing. They often struggle with handwriting. If an oral test is difficult to organize, children with ADHD and Tourettes need more time at tests than other children..
Some struggles more than other. But the children with ADHD and Tourettes don’t struggle with the same things. These children need adults in school who really want to help them, and that they are being treated as an individual with love and respect.
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